Donald Trump’s blunt talk not selling in one blue-collar community
Olga Llamas, of Moreno Valley, with son Isaac Llamas, escape the heat while playing in a water fountain near the USS Iowa in San Pedro, Calif.
At the corner of Gaffey and Anaheim streets is a road sign welcoming visitors to San Pedro, long a working-class community tied to Los Angeles’ massive port.
But the “welcome” will definitely be mixed when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives for a speech about national security Tuesday night on the battleship Iowa.
Trump is surging in the polls, with some pundits saying he is winning over blue-collar voters. He is generating huge crowds at events across the country, and the Iowa event is likely to continue that trend.
But in San Pedro, interviews Monday found many remain wary of Trump. Whites make up about 42% of the harbor district, but Latinos are close behind at 41%, according to Mapping L.A. Mexican Americans make up about 31.5% of the population, and Italian Americans 8.4%.
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About 11% of San Pedro’s population identifies itself as military veterans, and the area was once home to a sizable Army installation, Fort MacArthur.
Trump’s tough talk on immigration, which has made him a favorite of the Republican base, appears not to be playing as well in San Pedro.
“He shouldn’t come here,” said King Carter, 66, “The statements he has made are stupid, stereotypical and [exhibit] ethnic bias.”
“And I don’t think he should be giving a speech at the USS Iowa after what he said about McCain not being a hero,” Carter said. referring to U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz).
Trump mocked McCain, the GOP’s 2008 nominee and former prisoner of war in Vietnam during a July speech at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa. Trump told people at the event that McCain was “not a war hero” and that he preferred people that “weren’t captured.”
Carter said he has many friends who are Mexican American and Vietnam veterans, a few of whom were also former prisoners of war like McCain.
“They’re pretty bitter about what Trump said,” Carter said.
Putting a pile of clothes into a washing machine at a coin-op laundry, Russell Ponder, an Army veteran and resident of San Pedro, said he found the real estate developer’s statement about McCain offensive as well.
“I think it’s a decent idea of him to try and reach out to a demographic he knows he’s kinda of scorned,” Porter said, adding that whether people like it or not, Trump has the right to be heard.
Trump’s stance on illegal immigration is also hotly debated in the harbor area.
“The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems,“ he told a crowd of supporters at Trump Tower. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best…They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us.”
“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” Trump went on, adding “And some, I assume, are good people.”
Marta Gasca, 50, who has lived in San Pedro for more than 30 years, said she would prefer not to see Trump in her community.
“He’s not welcomed here,” she said. “He’s just bringing his circus of clowns to the city and we’re all going to become part of his big show.”
“He invokes nothing but anger in me,” she added.
Gasca is not alone, Gabriela Lopez, 25 and a post-baccalaureate student at UCLA School of Medicine, launched a petition last week more than a week ago when she heard that Trump was scheduled to make an appearance at the museum ship.
The “Tell the USS Iowa: we don’t want Trump in San Pedro, Ca” has so far received nearly 4,000 signatures, she said.
“As a community built on diversity of Croatians, Italians and Latinos we do not feel comfortable in hosting a man who has spewed hatred and discrimination towards our parents, friends, neighbors and babies,” Lopez wrote in part on the petition. “Donald Trump has a golf course about a mile away and can very well hold his conference in his own property.”
Kelly Whaling, 24, who lives at the border of San Pedro and Rancho Palos Verdes, said she and two others, including Lopez, are also organizing a rally ahead of Trump’s speech at Harbor and 1st Street.
Whaling said she would prefer to see Trump give his speech at his own property because the battleship is a politically neutral ship and because of his remarks against veterans, immigrants and women.
“There are just so many reasons,” Whaling said. “It also includes egregious remarks about women.”
Michael Caldwell was walking his dogs at Point Fermin Park.
He said he was unaware of Trump’s scheduled visit Tuesday and much like Ponder he had trouble making sense of the presidential candidate.
“My family agrees with some of his ideas, but overall they do not support him because of his statements about immigrants,” Caldwell said. “I also come from a family with some Latino ties.”
Caldwell said most of his friends don’t take Trump seriously, but he also understands why Trump has made such a gain on the polls.
“People want extreme change,” he said.
Tuesday’s event at the battleship is being organized by Veterans for a Strong America, a grassroots action organization. The theme of the event is Make America’s Military Great Again. Tickets vary from free for veterans and military personnel to $1,000 for premiere seating.
“Donald Trump has stated very clearly he supports an American military that is so powerful it will be challenged by no one, and he equally supports caring for veterans when they return home by providing them with healthcare and treatment they deserve,” said the group’s chairman, Joel Arends.
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